The husband of a Sudanese Christian woman facing threats after her apostasy death sentence was overturned expressed relief yesterday that the family has been given refuge at the US embassy.
“Really, it’s good,” Daniel Wani, the American husband of Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag, 26, told reporters by telephone, adding that US embassy staff have been “very helpful and very nice.”
He said his wife and two children, who could be heard in the background, are doing well at the heavily guarded facility on the outskirts of Khartoum.
Wani confirmed that they have sought the embassy’s protection because of death threats against his wife.
In Washington, US Department of State spokeswoman Marie Harf said Ishag and her family were “in a safe location” and Sudan’s government “has assured us of the family’s continued safety.”
Citing privacy considerations, she declined to specify further the location of Ishag, whose arrest — and potential execution — raised deep concern among Western governments and rights activists.
One of Ishag’s lawyers, Mohanad Mustafa, told reporters late on Thursday that the family had gone to the US mission after her release from a police station where she had been held since security agents stopped them from traveling to the US on Tuesday.
The family think the embassy “is a safe place for them,” Mustafa said.
Ishag is charged with forgery and providing false information in relation to a South Sudanese travel document she used to try to leave the country, a day after an appeal court overturned her apostasy conviction and released her from prison.
Following her release, she immediately went into hiding at another location because of the threats to her life.
Christian activists say her “alleged brother” stated that the family would carry out the death sentence if she were acquitted.
Ishag was born to a Muslim father and an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian mother. Her father abandoned the family when Ishag was five, leaving her to be raised by her mother, according to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum, which said she joined the Catholic church shortly before she married.
On May 15, a Sudanese court convicted Ishag under Islamic law that has been in force in Sudan since 1983 and outlaws conversions on pain of death.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of